Well it's that time of year again. The lake is close to pool, but we need the lake to reach 909'msl to have the flow agreement to kick in this summer. I've been watching the water temps on the monitors up and down the river and it's already exceeding 70 in the afternoon. So we need the right amount of rain to fall in the upper basin of the Guadalupe to raise the lake over 909'msl and not too much that the coldwater understory is flushed downriver...
Therefore the drums have come alive again.....

I'm beating those drums, but I'm also curious as to why so much water was released so quickly from the lake earlier this year. We could have had pool if a bit less water had been released, or if had been released more gradually.

As much as we would like to think the lake could be managed for the Trout fishery, it is primarily a flood control project designed and managed to control downstream flooding. Secondarily it releases water for historical water right demands downstream and thirdly the water is used to create electricity. The Flow Agreement fits in somewhere below it's primary function and along side all these other directives.
Technically the CORPS of Engineers controls the releases at anything above 909'msl and not GBRA.To satisfy the primary function the water is released to lower the lake anytime it is above pool. The only exception that would delay that release is downstream flooding already occurring.

The upper Basin pretty much missed catching any significant rain these last few days.
Tomorrow we have a better chance at catching the rain we need to raise the lake back up to pool.
So I'm hoping the clouds are thick and the rain comes in buckets.....

Very little rain fell in the upper basin. The river came up about 20cfs at Spring Branch. Not nearly enough to raise the lake back to pool.
The lake will start dropping again simply because of evaporation as the summer heats up.
We need a heavy rain over the upper basin over the next couple of weeks or we may never hit pool this summer.
It's amazing how close we are to getting summer flows and yet far enough never to hit the trigger.

Thanks for the reasons for the releases Jimbo but I am I the only one who thought it was weird that during the week (when I like to go fishing) the releases were really high and then come Friday they shut them off? I kinda figured it was for the tubers. Was it just my imagination or a coincidence?

Under certain conditions GBRA will cut the flows for weekend recreation. The lake must be below 910cfs, there must be no significant rain in the forecast. And it must be sometime after Easter but not after Labor day.
There are other reasons GBRA will cut flows. Their annual inspection of the dam, release tunnel, coffer dam, chute, and it's valves. They cut flows occasionally when they were retro fitting generating facilities to the dam. They may also cut releases if serious downstream flooding in occurring so as not to make a bad situation worse. They also cut flows back when they were doing instream repairs and trash removal after the 2002 flood.

It getting "iffy" again.
The lake is close to pool, but if the past summers are any indication, we need rain now!!!
If we don't get the rain in the next week or so and get the lake to pool, it probably won't happen this summer.
So say a little prayer for the right amount of rain in the upper basin.
Amen

That was during the storm and the waves messing up the gage readings.
It's 908.92'msl and still rising ever so slightly. Next good chance for significant rain is next week.
Maybe a rogue T-Storm will develop out of the blue.

Jimbo Roberts wrote:That was during the storm and the waves messing up the gage readings.
It's 908.92'msl and still rising ever so slightly. Next good chance for significant rain is next week.
Maybe a rogue T-Storm will develop out of the blue.

The upper basin on the Guadalupe is everything above Canyon Lake. So when it rains in the upper basin all that runoff has to go into Canyon Lake.
And we missed significant rains in the upper basin again. The river up there is really starting to drop. It's not looking good for the lake to get to pool and getting the Flow Agreement to kick in for sustaining summer flows. Well there's always the "Hail Mary",....."Full of Grace",.....